


Consolation Prize

by Lady Divine (fhartz91)



Series: Outside Edge [48]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, High School, Ice Skating, Light Angst, M/M, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 16:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16411820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fhartz91/pseuds/Lady%20Divine
Summary: Kurt spends his afternoon with a nervous Harmony as she embarks on her first ever skating competition. But no matter what place she takes, it might not be enough to soothe the sting of something else she's at risk of losing.





	Consolation Prize

“C-coach … Coach Hummel?”

“Yes, Harmony?”

“I … I don’t think I can do this,” she says, pinching her crimson lips so tightly together it makes her mouth look like a thin slash welling blood. “I think … I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Well, if you’re going to be sick, better do it now,” Sebastian suggests, rolling his shoulders as he prepares to warm up. “You’re going to lose big points if you hork on the ice.”

“Harmony, we talked about this.” Kurt puts his hands on her shoulders and steers her away from his insensitive boyfriend. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. You can do this. You’ve been practicing this routine for weeks! You could perform it in your sleep!”

“Yeah, but …” She glances over at the bleachers, each row packed with friends and family of every skater competing today. Her mother is in there somewhere. So is her dad … the two of them sitting seventy miles apart. Knowing that doesn’t make this situation any easier “… there are _so_ many people here. And they’re all going to be watching me. _Judging_ me.”

“Harmony! You’re the lead soloist of one of the most celebrated show choirs in Ohio!” Kurt reminds her with only the barest hint of an eye roll. “You perform in front of crowds much bigger than this!”

“That’s _different_! That’s singing and dancing! I’ve been doing that since I was a _fetus_!”

“This is dancing, too.”

“On ice! Wearing stiff boots and knives! Plus, I only started about three weeks ago! Whatever made me think competing would be a good idea?”

“You’ve gotten so much better in that time.”

“I haven’t landed a single waltz jump, my bunny hops suck, and my scratch spin is basically a half-circle!” A sudden burst of applause pulls their attention to the ice, where an impish little girl in an elaborately bedazzled purple dress enters a flawless spiral with a confident grin on her face. “There are seven-year-olds here landing Axels! I’m going to be humiliated!”

“Pfft!” Sebastian walks over, bored of warming up by himself. “None of that’s going to matter.”

Harmony can’t look away from the ice, away from the child in the sparkly dress performing an effortless sit-spin, but she catches his eyes through the reflection in the glass. “Why … why not?”

“Because, you’re competing against …”

“Because you have so much presence,” Kurt interrupts loudly, doing his best to drown out his clueless boyfriend, “no one’s going to care about any of that. They’re not going to notice any teeny tiny mistakes you might make. They’re going to see _you_ , with your big smile, you’re beautiful eyes, and your stunning dress, and you’re going to win them over, the same way you do on stage!”

“You … you think so?” Harmony asks, forgetting about whatever it was that Sebastian way trying to tell her. Kurt takes Harmony’s hands and squeezes them gently.

“I _know_ so.”

_“Up next, competing in event 17 – Harmony Clarke!”_

Harmony’s eyes widen. She didn’t even notice that the other skater’s song had finished. She could have sworn there was one more performance in between. They must have scratched, Harmony realizes, and the thin line of red that is her mouth disappears completely. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she whimpers.

“Don’t worry, and don’t panic.” Kurt takes Harmony’s hand and leads her to the ice. “No matter what happens, smile big. Focus on keeping your shoulders straight and your posture on lock, and everything else will fall into place.”

“O-okay.” She nods, taking the blockers off her blades and placing them on the ledge. She looks green as she puts one foot on the ice, but she plasters on her brightest smile, raises her hands into the air, and enters the arena.

“Go get ‘em, girl!” Sebastian calls, clapping his hands.

“My God, she’s nervous,” Kurt comments when Harmony strikes her beginning pose, her right leg trembling as if it’s about to vibrate off her body. “I didn’t think she’d be _this_ nervous.”

“Yup. But she’s going to get first place anyway.”

“Yes, she will.”

Sebastian takes a break from his halfhearted warming up to wrap his arms around Kurt’s shoulders, keeping him anchored as he shudders on Harmony’s behalf. “So, you didn’t tell her that she’s going to get first place anyway because she’s the only skater competing in her division?”

“No,” Kurt answers, wincing when Harmony trips over her toe pick during her first line of bunny hops and almost takes a knee.

“Why not? It might have made her less nervous.”

“I thought of that …” Kurt flinches as Harmony’s first attempt at a waltz jump puts her on her behind “… but it also might make it seem like her hard work doesn’t matter, that we could have spent the past few weeks watching ‘The Great British Bake Off’ instead of busting our butts here every day.” Harmony enters her first spin but doesn’t get too far, going about three-quarters of the way round before she slows to a halt, forcing her to complete the turn by awkwardly marching the remainder of the distance. “Besides, Harmony’s the kind of person who performs best under pressure. I thought that if she didn’t know, it might help her pull it together at the last minute.” Harmony tosses in an unplanned spin. She gives it her all, whipping her arms around to produce the momentum to carry her through one rotation. It doesn’t work, and this time, she does take a knee. Kurt gasps. “Apparently not.”

“But she performs for a living,” Sebastian says. “She knows how judging works. She’ll figure it out.”

“I know she will, but she hasn’t just yet. Let’s keep the magic alive for a little while longer.” Kurt’s gaze moves away from his floundering skater and falls on Harmony’s mom, sitting not too far from them, then to her dad, who found a seat in the far back. Kurt shakes his head. He realizes things are strained between them right now, but he’s disappointed they couldn’t get their acts together for one stinking afternoon.

Today isn’t about their marriage. It’s about their _daughter_.

Kurt looks back at the ice in time to see Harmony finish, snowplow stopping in the center of the rink with her arms raised; breathing heavily as if she just finished running a marathon; her smile, bright enough to cure cancer, back on her face in a last ditch effort to win over the judges.

_“Let’s hear a round of applause for Miss Harmony Clarke!”_

“You did it!” Kurt cheers, waiting with arms open for Harmony to glide carefully off the ice.

“Yeah, but I fell. A _lot_ ,” she mutters, putting her blockers back on her blades.

“As long as you didn’t get hurt, that’s all that counts.”

“Well, when I can feel my butt again, I’ll let you know.”

_“Will the skaters for events 18 through 25, please take the ice and begin your warm up!”_

“How long do you think we’ll have to wait for my results?”

“Something tells me not too long,” Sebastian mumbles, but seeing as Harmony doesn’t seem to hear him, Kurt resists the urge to elbow him in the ribs. As the next group of performers takes to the ice, the announcer’s voice returns, booming over the music.

_“The results for event 17 … in first place, Harmony Clarke!”_

Applause rises in the rink. A few spectators nearby congratulate Harmony. Kurt claps his stunned skater on the shoulder.

“See!? I told you you could do it!”

“Yeah,” Sebastian adds, giving her a light, playful punch on the upper arm. “Good job.”

Harmony blinks, staring blankly at Kurt and Sebastian, going over her performance in her head – the falls, the spins that ended abruptly, the tripping that resulted in her lack of posture, the edges that went neutral when they shouldn’t have. Her jaw drops. “I have … so many questions.”

Out of the corner of Kurt’s eye, he sees Harmony’s parents head over - bone stiff, keeping more than two arm lengths apart, ignoring one another so obscenely that the temperature in the rink drops about ten degrees. Kurt sighs. Why today of all days? Can’t they shelve the crap and act like parents for one frickin’ day? For Harmony’s sake?

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Kurt says preemptively, draping Harmony’s practice jacket over her shoulders and giving her a hug. “Just … remember to enjoy your trophy.”


End file.
